A tyre fitting machine of that kind is known for example from U.S. Pat. No. 7,108,036 B2. Certain operations in the tyre fitting and tyre removal procedures are preferably carried out on the tyre bead and the rim flange, when they are disposed upwardly. For that purpose it is necessary for the rim or the wheel to be turned so that the initially downwardly disposed rim flange and the downwardly disposed tyre bead are arranged facing upwardly. In the case of tyre fitting machines in which there is only one fitting-removal tool which acts on the upper tyre bead from above, it is also necessary to turn the wheel or the rim, as is known for example from U.S. Pat. No. 3,050,096.
In the majority of rim types which occur in practice the rim dish with which the wheel rests on the support surface of the wheel mounting means is disposed outside the central plane of the wheel. That therefore involves different processing planes during the fitting or removal operation, not only when turning the wheel but also by virtue of the different axial positions of the rim dish with respect to the rim flanges with the different types of wheel. The result of this is that the pillar on which the fitting-removal tool is guided and supported in a vertical direction must be of a minimum height in order to be able to deal with all types of wheel and all types of rim on the fitting machine.
The problem of the invention is to provide a tyre fitting machine of the kind set forth in the opening part of this specification, which provides for a reduced structural height, in particular of the pillar on which the at least one fitting-removal tool is vertically displaceably mounted and supported.